He tested negative for heartworm, ehrlichiosis, and anaplasmosis (yay!), but positive for Lyme disease (boo!). He has to be on a 28-day treatment of doxycycline, but that's something a new adopter can easily administer, so he's officially up for adoption.

I am adopting a dog with similar issues, but he is deaf too. He cannot wag his tail and his back is curved downward. He has control of his back legs and can run around and play hard, but sometimes will fall over or walk in a wiggly line. He can't sit and will come up in between your legs and lean up against you. Hes been taken to several vets but they said that he was most likely born with the issue or that and accident had happened which made him like that. I have a feeling that he may have been kicked really hard or hit, which is why he is both deaf and has the back end problem. You can see in his eyes that something must have happened to him. But he wouldn't ever let you know he has a issues, he doesn't let him bother him at all. He also has the problem with the front paws, the foster family has boots that they put on him to prevent the nail scraping. Maybe you should try that with Chopper.

He is one year old and a real sweetheart. and I am excited for him to finally come home on Sunday. I've been learning sign language so I can start teaching him signals. Hope he is ready to come home!

We might have to get some booties for Chopper. He scraped his nail today so it was bleeding.

One thing that helps Chopper is the webmaster harness (http://www.ruffwear.com/Web-Master-Harness). It has a handle on the back, so we can steady him, or help him up if he falls. It supports their back end much better than a normal harness, and it's great if you have to lift the dog. It's pricey, but it works well. You can see it in the first pics (in the recent ones we took it off to be washed, and the regular harness definitely didn't work as well!). It might be a help to your little guy.

I am not sure what size harness we have. It was purchased for a previous dog, and is actually a tad big on Chopper. But you're supposed to just measure their ribcage right behind their front legs, and then if you click "sizing" on that page, it will tell you what size you need.

Words cannot express my love for Chopper. I love the plaintive look when he's standing next to his ball, like, "You guys all see this, right? It's a ball. You know it's supposed to be thrown so I can go get it and give it back to you and then you can throw it again, right? RIGHT? GUYS?" (I know this look well.) What a sweet little baby.

Mr. Shuffle Feet/Pork Chop in action (he has so many names! Not too fond of the unveganness of pork chop!):

I thought his vet appointment was today, but it's tomorrow. Hopefully we'll know something more then. If it's a degenerative disease, it will get worse over time. If it's something he was born with, he'll probably stay the same. It's also possible he has a cyst or tumor pressing on his spine (we had a dog with that once), which could be relatively okay (a benign cyst that doesn't grow), or could be not so okay. We all have our fingers crossed for positive news!